Unexpected Uncovering
by Sparkling Amethyst
Summary: It's been about a month since Bella saved Edward from committing suicide in Italy. Edward still hasn't unpacked his suitcase, and, well, Bella only wants to help. But what happens when the innocent gesture reveals an item that Edward would have liked to have Bella be oblivious to? Can she forgive him for having this thing in his possession? One-shot only. Rated M, but no intimacy.


**I don't own the Twilight Saga. All rights go to Stephanie Meyer. **

**Bella's Point of View**

It's not a great feeling to have when you find out the one you love has been with another. There are so many feelings that go through your mind when it happens, when you initially find out – jealousy, hurt, betrayal, anger, sadness. I mean, guess that not everyone feels those exact feelings, but they seemed to be the most intense feelings that one should feel.

They're the feelings that I felt when I found out that Edward had been with another woman while he was away, after he'd left me for months after my birthday.

**...**

Edward was downstairs in his kitchen, preparing me dinner because I was having a sleepover – with Alice as far as Charlie knew. He would bring the dinner up to his room, where I would be sleeping tonight in the giant bed he'd bought especially for me, and we would watch a movie together.

We were taking things slow. The plane ride back from Italy had been torture because we both loved each other – although at the time I didn't know that he'd only left me out of love, that he'd never stopped loving me at all. It's been a little less than a month since that awful day, and of course, I'm still recovering from the pain his absence caused me. He knows that, and so we're slowly rebuilding our relationship back up. But this evening was going to be romantic because all of the Cullens had gone hunting to give Edward and I a _real _evening alone together. I'd missed this; I'd missed him, and I knew he'd missed me, and this evening was going to be perfect.

I looked around the room as the television show I was watching to pass the time cut to commercial. My eyes landed on a suitcase in the corner of the room – the suitcase he'd taken with him after the Cullens had moved away from Forks for a while that he still hadn't unpacked. I smiled and slid off the bed, making my way over to the bag, deciding that I would unpack it for him. It would take me longer than it would take him, technically, but I was bored and I wanted to help.

I picked up the bag and put it on the edge of the huge bed, unzipping it. I leaned down, breathing in his scent, before beginning to pull out the shirts. I knew Edward; the shirts and pants that were inside out meant that they needed to be washed, and I put them in his hamper. The clothes that he hadn't worn or had found time to wash during his journey to No Where in Particular were to be put back in their respective drawers. I got to work quickly, hoping to be done by the time Edward came back up.

I unzipped the pocket that was usually for underwear and tried not to blush. I tilted the suitcase over to dump all of the underwear onto the bed so that I could try and sort out what was clean and what was not – but I knew I'd probably end up just putting them all in the wash.

I didn't have to try to hold back my blush for long. My heart stopped when I saw it.

It was a pair of underwear. But they didn't belong to Edward.

They were too lacy and sexy and pink to belong to Edward.

They undoubtedly belonged to a woman, and I dropped the suitcase. Slowly, I began to back away from the bed, from Edward's clothes, from the sexy lingerie. My heartbeat was going crazy; my mind was zooming out of proportion, but I knew there had to be some kind of explanation.

Maybe he'd stopped at a laundry mat and a woman's clothes had accidentally gotten mixed into his, and he just hadn't noticed it.

No. That couldn't be it. There was only one pair of panties that didn't belong. Every other article of clothing was Edward's. Plus, he was a vampire – he would have been able to smell a woman's scent if it was mixed in with his clothes.

I tried again to make sense of it. Maybe he had been on his way back to me, and he'd bought them for me as a present – maybe he'd been planning to seduce me.

I almost laughed at that one. Edward would never be intimate with me until I'm changed – that was set in stone. Plus, he'd never know what to buy me, what size, what design I might like. And that design was definitely not something he'd be comfortable purchasing. He was too old-fashioned to think of me in that manner.

Maybe Alice had planted them there as a joke.

No. Even Alice wouldn't do that – and even if she had, she would have had a vision about me finding them when I made the choice to unpack his bag, because she would know that they were there. She would have called. Alice hadn't called me, which meant that she didn't know that they were there, and therefore she would have had to be paying very specific attention to my future. She hadn't called; She hadn't put them there.

I felt the tears come as all of my possible explanations fell through, and I finally let the only probable reason as to why they were there cross my mind.

Edward had been with another woman. He had to have been. Or he had to at least have been staying with a woman, but why would their clothes be mingling if they hadn't been having sexual relations?

I was sobbing when Edward came through the door. No dinner was in his hand, so he must have heard me crying and came rushing. "Bella?" His face was etched with worry, and I cried harder – he was so compassionate, and I loved him so much, and I felt so safe with him. How could he do that to me? He told me that he'd never stopped loving me the entire time he was away. Either he'd lied to me or he'd been with another woman while he still loved me, and neither option was blameless.

I realized that I was sitting on the floor in front of the bed as I watched him crouch down in front of me, bending his head to peek at my face. "Bella, love," he said. "Please, please speak to me. What's happened?"

I shook my head. I couldn't look at him.

"Bella, are you hurt?" he pressed. "What's wrong? Bella, tell me!" I watched as his eyes flickered to his suitcase on the bed, and then to the corner of the room where it had once been, and he frowned, a crinkle forming on his forehead. "What were you doing with my suitcase, love?"

"I-I-I –" I sobbed. "I . . . I . . . _unpack_." I kept my eyes on the carpet because it hurt too much to look at him.

"You were unpacking my suitcase for me?" he concluded. He smiled down at me warmly, but I didn't – couldn't – smile back. I was hurt. He had hurt me – he had broken my heart.

Pain flooded my body, and my stomach lurched. He made me sick; I felt sick.

He didn't seem to notice – I must have done a good job of keeping my face neutral. "That's so sweet of you, love. You didn't have to do that, really, but I do appreciate it. Did you want to make sure I was staying here indefinitely?"

I'd stopped crying long enough to focus my vision, but it blurred again immediately after that sentence and I broke into more sobs. His face fell with shock and fear, and I felt cold arms wrap around me. He pulled me against his chest. "Bella, love, please tell me what's wrong!" He scanned my body, looking for any sort of injury, and frowned when he found nothing. "Bella?"

Finally, my pain turned into anger. I pushed his chest as hard as I could without breaking my wrists. Edward got the picture and released me, shock and hurt crossing his face.

_Good. He should be in pain. _

"How could you?" I screamed. "_How_ could you do that to me?"

"Bella, love," he murmured, surprised at my sudden shift of emotions. He raised his hands in front of him – a gesture of innocence. "What do you mean? What have I done, Bella? How have I upset you?"

My eyes drifted to the pair of sexy pink underwear unwillingly, and I sobbed. "I thought you loved me!" I yelled, wobbling on my unbalanced feet as I backed farther away from him. "I thought you would _always _love me! I thought you would _never stop_!"

His eyes widened, not having noticed the panties yet, even though my eyes had clearly pointed them out. "Bella, I've loved you from the first vision of you I read in Alice's mind, and I _will _always love you! What's gotten into you, Bella? Was it my suitcase? I'm sorry I didn't have it unpacked already, I've just been –" He stopped talking when his eyes, which had been roaming over the mostly-unpacked suitcase, finally found the pink panties. They widened, and he gasped, freezing. "B-Bella," he whispered, just loudly enough for me to hear. He didn't look at me, but kept his eyes on the panties as if he'd seen a ghost. "No, no . . . Bella, it's not . . . Bella." He looked to me, where I'd gone back to sobbing, and took a step towards me.

I threw myself back a step.

He paled. "Bella, no . . ."

I wept. "You broke my heart once, Edward, and now you're doing it again!"

"No, no, Bella!" he cried, his hands fluttering in front of him, reaching for me, but I backed up once again. "Bella, I . . . I didn't . . . Bella, I love you! You know I love you! I've never seen those before in my –" He cut off abruptly, and gasped.

"That's the biggest lie you've ever told me, Edward," I whispered, gaining control of myself at last. "You've seen them before. You know you have."

"Bella . . ." he gasped uselessly, defeated. "Bella, I love you . . . I'm never going to leave you again, Bella, I promise you . . . it will only ever be you for me for the rest of eternity."

I shook my head. "I'm calling Alice."

"She's hunting, Bella," he whispered. "Let her –"

"No!" I screamed. "I'm calling _Alice_!"

"Bella –"

"No!" I repeated. "Get away from me!"

He fell to his knees in front of me, his face twisted in pain, and watched as I ran past him and slammed the nearest bedroom door closed behind me, locking it as fast as I could. I knew the lock couldn't keep him out if he was determined to get in, but he was still Edward, and he wouldn't force his way in this room if he knew I didn't want him in there – not unless he thought my life was at stake.

That thought made me cry. He was so protective of me, so caring, so loving. It hurt; he'd ruined everything! He couldn't even admit that he'd been with another woman, couldn't even say who it was. He couldn't own up to his mistake.

I turned away from the door and saw the bright purple and yellow bedspread on the king-sized bed and knew right away that I'd run into Alice and Jasper's room. I crawled up onto the bed and cried myself to sleep, but I didn't fall asleep before I had the chance to hear a loud crash and a deafeningly loud and angry snarl come from Edward's room not twenty feet away.

…

I woke to hear voices coming from outside Alice and Jasper's bedroom door. They weren't right outside, but they were close; I assumed they were in Edward's room, or at least near the threshold.

I slipped off of the bed, tossing away the covers, and crept closer to the door so that I could press my ear against the cold wood. I heard Alice's voice, but it was muted.

"_How _could you . . . I mean . . . _what _did you do, Edward?"

I heard Edward's voice, weak and tortured. "I couldn't stop . . . _thinking _about her," he croaked. "After I left her . . . in the woods . . . I couldn't stop picturing her crumpled face, and . . . I was so lonely for . . ._ months_." He paused, and I pictured him swallowing and running a hand through is messy red-brown hair. "I didn't . . . _plan _it. I loved Bella – I've never stopped, and I never will."

"_Who_, Edward?" Rosalie's voice startled me. She sounded angry – furious. Was it possible that she was arguing on my side, with Alice? "Who did you sleep with?"

I bent over as I heard the words, heard it being implied that Edward had had sex with another woman, and I almost gagged, but I knew if I made any noise they would hear and be at the door, knocking and demanding my attention in a second, and so I fought it back.

He groaned. "I . . . I found myself in Alaska about . . . a month after I left Bella, after we all left Forks. I stayed there for about . . . three weeks."

"I should have known," Alice snapped. "I should have known you'd go to Tanya. But really, Edward? You had _sex _with her? How many times?"

"That's hardly an appropriate question for my _sister _to ask me!"

"In situations like this, Edward, we aren't siblings," she retorted sharply. "Don't you think that's a question Bella will want an answer to when she gets up?"

I heard Edward sob a tearless sob. "Four times," he finally responded after a little hesitation. I closed my eyes and the silent tears came. I crouched down soundlessly, covering my mouth with my palm and squeezed my eyes shut even more.

"Was it good for you, Edward?" Rosalie barked. "I'm _sure _it was good for Tanya – she got what she's always wanted, ever since we first met them. It wasn't good for Bella, obviously – or don't you care?"

"_Of course I care_!" he yelled at her. "I love her! I always have! Even when I was with Tanya, I pictured Bella!"

"That doesn't make it better," Alice quipped. "That makes you disgusting, using Tanya to get relieve, being with another woman when you love Bella. It makes you doubly-sick."

"You don't think it's torturing me?" he cried. "You don't think it killed me to hear her crying and sobbing last night before she finally fell asleep?"

"It should," Rosalie said. "It should make you feel _awful_. You should feel like . . . like . . ." I heard her make a noise of disgust. "You're disgusting."

"What I want to know is why you brought a pair of her lingerie home," Alice demanded. "Is that the pair she was wearing the _first _time out of the four?"

"I didn't bring them home on purpose, I swear," he croaked. "I . . . I felt . . . ill afterwards, after the last time . . . I wanted to leave as soon as I could, and Tanya must have known that." He cleared his throat, strengthening his voice. "I went hunting before I left. She must have snuck them in my suitcase before I returned to say goodbye to everyone."

"That sounds like Tanya," Rosalie muttered. "She's such a –"

"Rose," Esme's voice scolded, startling me. I hadn't known she was there. Were all the Cullens gathered outside Edward's door? I found that hard to believe – I mean, none of them had realized I wasn't asleep anymore.

"What?" Rosalie said innocently.

"I want to know why I didn't see it," Alice complained, ignoring her mother and sister-in-law. "Why didn't I see it? Ugh!"

"That's not the point, Alice," Esme said calmly. "The point is that Bella is heartbroken, and we need to make sure that she's okay."

"I can't lose her," Edward whispered so quietly that I could hardly hear him. "Please, Esme, Alice, you have to help me get her back. You have to help me gain her trust back."

"Good choice leaving me out there," Rosalie snarled. "I'd have kicked you in the _Netherlands _if you had asked _me _to help _you _after all you've done."

"The Netherlands?" I heard Emmett ask, clueless.

"His _nuts_, Emmett," his wife responded bitterly. "_Don't _make me use a more vulgar word than that, okay, babe?" I heard the sound of feet shuffling against the hardwood floor of the Cullens' hallway. "Let's go. I'm sick of this idiot."

"Esme," Edward pleaded once it sounded like Rose and Emmett had gone, "please, Esme, you have to help me. How do I make it right?"

"You _can't_," Alice growled at him before Esme could respond. "You slept with another woman, Edward, and you failed to tell Bella about it. Even though you weren't _dating _at the time, you claim to still have been in love with her all during your separation. If you loved Bella, you wouldn't have ever done that."

"I _do _love her," he gasped out. "She's my _everything_. She's my _world_."

"Well, Edward," Esme sighed, "your words contradict your actions."

…

Eventually, I grow hungry. It's inevitable – I hadn't eaten dinner last night and the clock on Alice's nightstand said that I'd missed breakfast. I was starving, and I figured it was about time to give Alice and Jasper their bedroom back.

Twice, now, I'd heard Jasper talking to Alice outside the door.

"Alice, I only want my Arts of War book," he'd said. "I'll get it and be out without waking her."

"She feels safe in there, Jazz,"Alice had argued. "She needs to feel safe. She needs to know that we'll respect her if she wants her space. She doesn't want to come out – she doesn't want to deal with Edward, and can you blame her? Let her be. If you break in, she'll feel less safe."

The other conversation was more impatient on Jasper's end.

"Why should I have to break into my own room?" he'd demanded, and I knew that Alice had caught him trying to enter the bedroom again. "This is ridiculous – she should unlock the door and get out. I need my space, Alice – Edward's wining and Rosalie's nagging is getting on my nerves, and our bedroom is the only place I can escape that. She needs to eat, anyway."

"Feel her emotions, Jasper," Alice ordered. "Feel them." There was a pause. "Now, tell me – how long has she felt like that? Be honest – you know she hasn't been sleeping this whole time."

I jolted, and then felt hurt. If they all knew that I'd been awake for a long time, why hadn't Edward made some kind of effort to come and talk to me?

Jasper sighed. "Do you think she can hear us right now?"

There was no conversation after that, and so I assumed that they had either walked away or carried on a conversation at a much faster speed that my human ears couldn't pick up.

I felt bad for taking their room up, and I think that's what led me to slide off of the bed and creep over to the door. Halfway to the door, I heard Edward's bedroom door open and close, and then his voice said softly into the door, "Bella, love?"

I gasped. I hadn't prepared myself to talk to him, and my brain forgot how to walk and talk. The sound of his voice both comforted me and wounded me at the same time.

"Bella? Are you coming out?" he called again. He knocked lightly on the door. "Bella, please – let me explain myself to you. Please, Bella, it meant nothing, I promise you!"

I swallowed and crawled back up onto the bed. Maybe if he thought I'd changed my mind about coming out, he'd walk away.

He sighed, and I heard him lean against the door. "Bella, I love you . . . more than anything, Bella."

Again, I didn't respond.

He started to beg. The doorknob wiggled gently. "Bella, Bella, please, Bella, please . . . please, let me in, Bella, I just want to see you, your face, your smile. I miss your scent – it's all but vanished from my bedroom. Please, love, please. Please, Bella?"

I noticed the many times he was saying my name, as if that were going to comfort me – as if he was showing me that he hadn't forgotten my name in this whole incident. It made me sick.

He stood there for a while before I finally heard him sob a dry, tearless sob and walk away. Two minutes after I knew he was gone, I spoke for the first time in almost twenty-four hours. "Alice."

She was at the door in seconds. "Bella?"

I jumped down off the massively high bed and threw the door's lock open. I opened the door quickly, the tears already coming. "Alice," I gasped, my sight blurred.

I felt her cold arms come around me. She rubbed my back. "It's okay, Bella – everything's okay."

"Is he –" I choked on my tears. "Is he still . . . here?"

"No," she responded. "He went for a drive." We pulled back and she stepped inside, closing the door behind her. She rolled her eyes, and that action confused me, but then she unknowingly explained it for me. "Oh, Jasper, that's enough. Stop complaining." He must have been expecting to be allowed back into his room.

"He can get whatever he needs out of here," I permitted. "I mean, I never meant to kick you guys out of your room. I'm sorry, Jasper." I knew he could hear me.

"He says thank you, but he can wait until after we have our talk." It sounded like she'd answered for him, but I ignored it, fighting a smile. "Now, what was I saying?" She tapped her index finger on her chin thoughtfully, overacting a bit with her human specifics. "Oh, yes. He went for a drive. He's determined to gain back your love."

"I still love him," I said softly but quickly. "I-I'll never stop loving him. It just . . ." I sniffled. "It hurts."

She nodded, pulling us to sit down on her bed with our legs dangling over the side. Neither one of us could touch the ground with our knees positioned at the edge of the bed. I really wasn't much taller than her – maybe an inch or an inch and a half. "I understand, Bella," she assured me. "You have every right to be upset."

"Do I?" I asked, unsure. After all these dramatics, I felt as if I was overreacting a bit. "We weren't dating, technically."

"He still loved you when he did it, Bella," she reminded me.

I nodded. "I guess I'm just thinking, if he could do that while he loved me _then_, well, then what would stop him from doing it _now_?"

She gave a sympathetic pat on my arm. "That's a perfectly good reason to be unsure."

"What would you do, Alice?"

"Me?" She raised her eyebrows, caught off guard. "Well . . . gosh, I've never really . . . thought of that . . . I guess I never thought that Jasper would ever do that to me. I mean, mated vampires don't stray – it's a fact. But . . . if I were you, Bella, I would . . ." She hesitated. "I would hear him out."

"Really?" Inside, I was thrilled. I missed his face, even though I knew I should be furious with him. His voice, five minutes ago, had really perked my mood up, but once he had gone, I'd went back to pouting.

"Really," Alice confirmed. "And then, if you still feel the way you're feeling _right at this very second_ . . . dump him."

I gasped. "I can't, Alice."

"Can't what?" she asked. "Can't dump him?"

I shrugged, watching my thumbs twiddle back and forth.

She grinned softly at me. "That's the female vampire in you, Bella," she laughed. "You and Edward are _meant _for each other. But that doesn't mean that you're bound together permanently. You can date whoever you want, be with whoever you want."

"What if I don't know what I'm feeling?" I asked. I met her liquid golden eyes in fear.

"You're feeling betrayed," she said, and I knew right away she was hearing Jasper speak from somewhere else in the house. "You're feeling . . . confused. Insulted. Offended. Hurt. But at the same time, you still love him."

I nodded. She'd just about summed that up for me.

"Those are normal feelings, Bella," she assured me. "If I thought Jazz was cheating on me, or _had _at some point –" Her eyes shot over to the door, annoyed. "_Which I don't_, jeez, but if I_ did_, I would give him a chance to explain himself, and if the conversation left me second-guessing myself or feeling bad about myself, then I'd leave him." She grinned, probably at something her husband had said.

I bobbed my head up and down all throughout her mini-speech. "I get what you're saying."

"Good," she breathed, "because he's back."

…

I was a bit childish at the beginning of my conversation with Edward. I sat on the inside of the door, inside Alice's bedroom, with my knees pulled up to my chest and my arms around my calves. Edward was sitting on the other side of the door, in the same position or one close to it, I assumed.

Alice had been out of the room with the door closed before Edward was able to make it into the house. "Let me talk to him for a second, and then he's all yours," she'd whispered, and after I'd blinked, she'd been gone.

Now, after a brief scolding-slash-warning from Alice, Edward sat silently. The only thing that told me he was there was the soft exhale of his breath.

"Edward?" I finally cracked, but the words were barely audible, even to me, and I wondered immediately after I spoke if he could even hear me.

"Bella," he responded instantly, squashing those thoughts.

I sniffled.

"Bella, love," he started, "are we really going to have this conversation with a door between us and the entire family listening?"

"Yes," I said curtly.

"Alright," he allowed, as if he had a choice – I wasn't going to willingly let him in yet, and Alice would never let him break the lock on her door. "Where shall I begin?"

"Start with the who," I whispered.

"Okay," he agreed. I leaned my head back against the door, imagining myself leaning against his cold, stone body or comfort. But he couldn't offer me any comfort now – not while he was the source of my pain. "Well, her name is Tanya."

"Is?" I repeated, a sick feeling settling in my stomach suddenly.

"Was!" he corrected immediately. "I only said _is _because she's still alive and therefore doesn't need the past tense. Bella, I swear to you, I haven't been with her since that day, since the day I went to Alaska to avoid my loneliness. It's been months, Bella – not since November."

"He's telling the truth, Bella," I heard Jasper say from outside the door. He was probably standing across the hall from where Edward was sitting, according to the sounds of their voices compared to each other. "Creatures have a very distinct emotion that can't be hidden, no matter how good of a liar he or she is. If they're lying, I can feel it. I can assure you, Bella. His last few sentences have been entirely truthful."

November, I thought, processing it. He left me at the very, very end September. So he'd been with her about a month after he'd left me _for my own good_, as he'd once said. I swallowed, nodding to myself. At least he hadn't run right to Tanya Denali after leaving me. "Thank you, Jasper," I said softly. "Go on, Edward."

Edward breathed out a sigh of relief. "Okay," he murmured. "What . . . what else do you want to know? What other . . . questions do you have?"

Questions, I thought, as if he was a teacher outlining tomorrow's quiz. I felt numb. It was like everything in the world as surreal. "How many times?" I already knew the answer, obviously. It was a test.

He paused a minute. "Four."

I nodded. Check. "Why?"

"What?"

"_Why_," I stressed, "did you do it?"

I heard him gulp on the other side of the door. "I was so . . . _lonely_, Bella," he sniveled. "It only took me about two weeks to start having second thoughts about leaving you. I wanted to go back to you more than anything in the entire world. I missed you so, and I loved you just as much as I love you in this moment – more than my own life. I needed . . . a _distraction_. I never . . . made the choice to go to her." He stopped, collecting his thoughts. "Not consciously, anyway. I just . . . _found _myself there, on their doorstep, saying hello to Carmen and Eleazar and Kate. She was in the background, just watching. She knew something was wrong."

I had started to cry without realizing it.

"Bella, love?" he murmured. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said, and shook my head at myself when I heard the shaky edge to my voice. "Continue."

"She got me alone, and I spilled my guts the moment she asked," he forced out. I could tell from the strain of his voice that he didn't like these memories, but he was going to have to tell me everything if he wanted my forgiveness. "She told me she could make the pain go away – the pain of missing you and wanting to have you in my arms. I could hear it in her mind, see her picturing us – _engaging _in sexual activities. I said no, for a few days. But I didn't want to leave the area that was ideal for hunting and that had running water for showers and a place for me to just _sit _instead of constantly having to move around. Eventually, her constant thoughts of her _idea _being in my head . . . _persuaded _me, I suppose." He inhaled loudly and exhaled slowly. "It didn't feel right the first time. The first thing that was wrong was that, of course, I still loved you and would always love you. She wasn't you. It wasn't what I'd imagined when I imagined making love to you. But what I did with her wasn't making love at all. The second thing was that I was committing the only sin that I'd yet to commit. The third thing was that . . . she wasn't . . . sweet. She talked . . ." He cleared his throat. ". . . _dirty_. It wasn't something that I liked, probably because I'd never, ever picture _you _saying things like that and it took away from my ability to picture you in her place. It would have been better if she was shield, and therefore kept her thoughts shielded from me."

He stopped talking, letting me process this, and I was grateful. It didn't help that he'd pictured me in Tanya's place. Rosalie had been right about that; it just made him sick. I had to make sure he was being honest. If he was telling me the whole truth, then my love for him could and would redeem him. It sort of made me ashamed of myself that I could love him so much that I would be so entirely willing to forgive him for a deed like this, but I shook that off. Alice had said it herself; we were made for each other.

Jasper, who I'd forgotten was there, interjected his two cents, which I was thankful for. "All of that was truthful, Bella. He hasn't lied to you yet."

"So he's passing the ultimate lie-detector test, huh?" I joked, but both of them could hear the weak, dejected manner in my voice.

Jasper chuckled nevertheless. "Yes, it would appear that he is."

"Bella?" Edward said gently.

"Edward," I responded instinctively. I cleared my throat of the gathering phlegm and when I continued, my voice was stronger. "I believe you, Edward. I believe that you love me. I believe that you've _always _loved me and that you always will. You've always said you'll never break a promise to me. So, promise me." Tears pooled and spilled down my cheeks silently, and it felt like they were burning my skin. I ignored them. "Promise me that you'll never, ever be with her again. And promise me that you'll never speak to her again, unless it's an emergency. And promise me that I'll never have to meet her, or talk to her, or see her, because I just can't do that."

"I promise," he assured me pleadingly. "I promise you, Bella. I promise I'll never be with her again. I swear I'll never speak to her again." His voice trailed off for a second, and then came back stronger. "I will only ever speak to her again if it involves your _direct _safety or that of one of my other family members."

I nodded, forgetting that he couldn't see me. "Okay. That's agreeable." And it was. That was a fine promise.

"And I assure you with my whole heart that you will never have to look at her, speak to her, or have anything to do with her, ever – for all eternity. That is . . ." He hesitated. "If you still want to spend eternity with me."

I pushed myself off of the ground and wrapped my fingers around the doorknob. I closed my eyes for a second, squeezing them so tight I saw multi-colored splotches inside my eyelids before unlocking and opening the door. I met his gaze right away and the relief that flooded through me made me gasp. "Of course I do, Edward," I whispered.

I was in his arms a second later, and the coolness of his embrace along with his scent in my nose and his voice in my ear made me finally realize that I could forgive him for anything.

Unless he went back to her, that is.

"I love you, my Bella," he murmured in my ear. "My world, my heart, I love you so much."

"I love you, too," I responded, wrapping my arms around his neck. He hoisted me off the ground and held my hips and our lips met. He trialed kisses down my neck and back up again, and he pressed his lips against mine for a second time.

He chuckled when I blushed at his attention.

I laughed with him, our agreement all but forgotten. My stomach growled. "Can I have something to eat?"

* * *

So, did you think Bella forgive Edward too easily, or did you think she overreacted? Do you think Alice was right to give Bella the advice to hear him out? Leave me your comments and/or questions in a review. Thank you for reading.


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